Switzerland evacuates 3 foreign ministry employees from Afghanistan

Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said on Monday that Switzerland had evacuated three Swiss citizens working for the Agency for Development and Cooperation (DEZA), a branch of the ministry of foreign affairs, in Kabul from Afghanistan.

"With assistance from our partners we managed to evacuate from the country three employees of the DEZA office in Kabul. They are on their way to Switzerland. We are working hard to evacuate Swiss employees [in Afghanistan] under the most difficult circumstances," Cassis wrote on Twitter.

Meanwhile, France is set to conduct the first evacuation from Afghanistan on Monday after it relocated its embassy to Kabul airport for safety considerations just as Germany and the Netherlands did. On Sunday, the United States evacuated its embassy personnel after deploying another 1,000 troops to assist in the process. Several states, including Poland and New Zealand, pledged to offer aid to Afghan nationals, who assisted their embassies and military personnel.

On Sunday, the Taliban took over the Afghan capital of Kabul, after which President Ashraf Ghani announced his resignation and left the country. Ghani said his decision was dictated by the desire to prevent violence as the militants were ready to carry out an attack on the capital. Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem said that the movement had put an end to the 20-year war in the country. (ANI/Sputnik)

( With inputs from ANI )

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